BoomTown » Michael Jackson

What Hath Flip Wrought?–The Ghoul Edition

Kara Swisher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:06:27 +0000

Earlier this week, BoomTown pointed out how Cisco (CSCO) Chairman and CEO John Chambers was captured doing duck calls on the Flip digital video camera, made by the start-up his company bought in March for $590 million.

That was an adorable use of the consumer electronics device. But in the not-so-cute department, I submit this photo above.

Sitting next to her boss, Barbara Walters, an ABC producer used it to ghoulishly take shots of the kids of pop legend Michael Jackson memorial service on Monday.

Noted the TMZ celebrity news site:

“During last night’s ‘20/20′ Michael Jackson special, Walters showcased footage shot by an ABC producer sitting next to her at the memorial. The video captures Katherine Jackson and Michael’s kids two rows in front of Barbara watching the service–despite the fact that tickets to the event clearly state ‘no camera/video/recording.’”

While readers of this blog know I am all for annoying execs with the Flip treatment, pointing and shooting at what is essentially a funeral service, given how much video was available already of those kids (already being sadly overexposed, but that’s another issue): Yuk.

Here is a link on the TMZ of the video in use by Walters.

[Photo courtesy of Getty Images.]

TMZ's Harvey Levin Speaks About Michael Jackson and More!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:51:29 +0000

On the spur of the moment yesterday–as Los Angeles was gridlocked by the memorial service for pop legend Michael Jackson–BoomTown decided to pay a quick visit to Harvey Levin, who runs TMZ.

Located on Sunset Boulevard–natch!–TMZ is the celebrity news Web site that actually broke the news of Jackson’s death, before any other media outlet.

And it has pretty much led the coverage as the sad story has unfolded–and continues to.

In fact, TMZ–which stands for the “30-mile zone” of Hollywood and also has a television show–is one of the great content sites on the Internet.

It uses a nice blend of text, video, audio and a laser focus on intense reporting on its topic to yield a whole new kind of media that is Web-born and -bred.

As I always note: Levin covers the tribulations of celebrities, like Britney Spears, as if they were the Iraq war.

TMZ, which will soon undergo a refresh of its design, is owned by Time Warner (TWX). It was launched in 2005 jointly by its Telepictures and AOL units.

Here’s a video interview I did with Levin about hubbub around Jackson yesterday and other topics, such as paying for tips and the convergence of online and offline (and, below it, is also a video tour of TMZ I did in late 2007, just after it launched its television show):

[ See post to watch video ]

Bing Marketing Dollars at Work: Farewell, Michael Jackson

Kara Swisher — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:46:52 +0000

Where is Microsoft (MSFT) spending its $100 million in marketing for its new Bing search service?

Well, here’s a photo that was forwarded to me showing an advertisement on top of a taxi in Manhattan of a goodbye message from Bing, as well as GE (GE) entertainment unit NBC, to the late pop legend, Michael Jackson.

It was a joint effort from Bing and NBC, said a Microsoft source. The software giant and NBC have a strong partnership surrounding the launch the search service.

Done by Show Media, which specializes in this form of advertising, the text–with a picture from Jackson’s “Thriller” album–reads: “We will miss you Michael.”

Presumably, enough of a condolence to get fans to search about him on Bing–instead of on Google (GOOG) or Yahoo (YHOO)–and get news updates from NBC’s many media outlets.

Jackson’s sudden death last week caused a massive surge of activity all over the Web, including at search engines.

Here’s the taxi-topper image (click on it to make it larger):

Farrah Fawcett Also Remembered on the Web

Kara Swisher — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:22:30 +0000

While she had almost nothing to do with the Internet, the Web still has a lot to do with Farrah Fawcett, especially today after the iconic Hollywood actress and model died after a long and well-documented battle with cancer.

Still, the massive online reaction to a more sudden and unexpected celebrity death yesterday–pop legend Michael Jackson, who was 50–pretty much drowned out Fawcett’s passing at 62 years old.

That’s too bad, since she was a genuine cultural phenom–from her famous poster to her feathered hairstyle to her always glamorous declarations of “Freeze!” on the television show, “Charlie’s Angels.”

Thus, here’s my favorite of the many tributes to Fawcett from the Web, to remember her by:

New GM for IAC's Secret Tina Brown Project

Kara Swisher — Wed, 21 May 2008 07:05:42 +0000

OK, not that secret a project.

BoomTown has known about it forever and Radar Online gave the lowdown about the creation of the hip-sounding news aggregator Web site–headed by high-profile editor Tina Brown (pictured here)–by Barry Diller’s IAC (IACI) in a report in early April.

Think the Huffington Post, but more culture and less political wonkishness in a bolder and more colorful design.

While still in its planning stages, though, it just hired a new GM to run the business: Caroline Marks.

She was GM of Comcast’s Ziddio, a social video endeavor, and was also head of content development for Comcast Interactive (CMCSA). Marks has also worked in several high-profile mobile companies in the U.K.

Marks will reports to IAC’s Nick Lehman–who works for Michael Jackson, the head of programming at IAC–to get the project off the ground for IAC and Brown, the former Talk, Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor.

The project has already hired Edward Felsenthal, the former deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal (and BoomTown friend), to helm the edit side under Brown.

IAC has dabbled a lot in online content initiatives of late with mixed results. Still, it is moving forward with even more.

For example, the company is set to debut a personal financial site in a joint venture with News Corp.’s (NWS) Dow Jones (owner of this site), called FiLife, in June.